I grew up in the south, and attended a large public high school in an upper middle class neighborhood built around a country club. Our fathers had been fraternity brothers at the state flagship, and became doctors, lawyers, engineers, businessmen, and/or politicians, who played golf together on Wednesday afternoons and the weekends, and poker on Thursday night. Our mothers did important volunteer work, and played tennis and bridge with their sorority sisters. All the couples had football season tickets for their alma mater. Friday night was steak night at the country club, and since it was included in your dues, you might as well go.
The neighborhood high school reported 98% of our 1974 class of 550 went to college. All but a handful went to the state flagship. The overwhelming majority of those who went on for professional degrees did those in-state as well.
All the girls and boys elected to class office and homecoming/prom courts were in honors classes. All the elected boys were on the football team (which won the state championship most years) and most were on the basketball and baseball teams as well. All the elected girls were cheerleaders, on dance squad, or majorettes. Girls didn’t have athletic teams. All those students went to the state flagship, joined fraternity and sororities, became officers in those groups, and then went on to become doctors, lawyers, engineers, businessmen (and businesswomen) and politicians. Most of the engineers have advanced engineering degrees of some kind or an MBA. The majority of these former popular classmates live in our hometown, just in a newer, fancier neighborhood then the one we grew up in, though still built around a country club. They have football season tickets.
I don’t know what popular really means in a high school class the size of ours. In the early 70s, even in the south, many teens didn’t think it was very cool to play sports, dance at half-time, go to school dances or run for student government.
Even the too-cool-for-school students ended up at the state flagship, but many of them left home afterwards. The cool musician was in a famous rock bank, toured the world, and still has a successful career in music. The cool gay guy left for NYC and an arts career and hasn’t looked back. He’s famous, but I’m not going to tell you any more. The cool nerd was an early bazillionaire tech whiz in CA. They have been back for high school reunions. Well, maybe not the musician.